If you think about it, sex is actually sort of disgusting, what with all the sweat, saliva, fluids and smells. So much so that a group of researchers from the Netherlands got to thinking, How do people enjoy sex at all?

According to their small new study, people — at least women — may be able to get over the “ick” factor associated with sex by getting turned on. Sexual arousal overrides the natural disgust response, the researchers found, and allows women to willingly engage in behaviors that they might normally find repugnant.

The study, conducted by scientists at the University of Groningen, involved 90 women who were randomly assigned to one of three groups. One group watched a “female friendly” erotic video; another watched a video of high-adrenaline sports like skydiving or rafting, designed to be arousing but not sexually so; and the third group watched a neutral video clip of a train.

Afterward, all the women were asked to perform 16 tasks, most of them icky, like drinking from a cup with a bug in it (the bug was fake), wiping their hands with a used tissue, eating a cookie that was next to a live worm or putting their finger in a tray of used condoms.

The researchers found that the women who watched the sexually arousing video rated the unpleasant tasks as less disgusting than did their counterparts who were not sexually aroused. They were also more likely to complete more of the tasks, suggesting that sexual arousal not only dampens the disgust response but also influences how much women are willing to do.

That helps explain why so many people keep having sex, despite the inherent messiness of it, the researchers said. “The findings indicate that both the impact of heightened sexual arousal on subjective disgust and also on disgust-induced avoidance will act in a way to facilitate the engagement in pleasurable sex,” the authors wrote. Previous studies suggest that sexual arousal has the same effect on men.

“I think this study is interesting in that it helps support the idea that sexual arousal lowers inhibitions and often enables one to participate in activities that they might normally find disgusting or off-putting,” Dr. Ian Kerner, a sexuality counselor and author based in New York City who was uninvolved with the study, told ABC News.

The findings may also shed light on conditions involving sexual dysfunction. Lack of sexual arousal may interfere with healthy sex by failing to dampen the disgust factor, the authors said. Essentially, if women are not appropriately aroused before sex, they may find it even more repulsive and increasingly start to avoid it. Low arousal can also render women physically unable to enjoy sex, the authors said:

As a result, this could lead to problems with sexual engagement, and lack of vaginal lubrication, which in turn could increase friction and cause problems such as pain with intercourse. It is thus possible that in extreme cases the woman might acquire negative associations with sex and might start to avoid sexual intercourse altogether.

The authors call for further research among larger groups, including participants suffering from sexual dysfunctions.

Absolutely. Sexual arousal most definitely plays a role in limiting our perceptions of disgust within sexual intercourse. I am a young female who still struggles with the concept of sex on a daily basis but in the state of arousal I really seem to forget about all my values and beliefs on private parts and why they are disgusting to me.

There are several opinions to exactly where the G-spot is, and indeed it varies from woman to woman. You can be sure however that is somewhere from the urethral opening on to the termination of the vagina.Using one or two fingers, insert them inside your partner's vagina, touching the top of the vaginal wall. You will feel a lattice-work of muscle tissue, and somewhere in that lattice is the real G-spot. Be very careful how you touch it. Too little pressure and your partner will feel nothing. Too much pressure and she will experience an unpleasant pain.

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Consider sexual arousal as the second stage of lovemaking. To start with, you need to engage in sexual relations then after that, through foreplay and closeness, you turn into excited. Anyhow if its all the same to is stating "yes" and your physique isn't tuning in, you could be experiencing sexual arousaljumble (Sad).

In my opinion, sex isn't "disgusting" or "gross", and anyone who think it is is must be extremely immature or doesn't understand anything about it. It's a natural thing that you do with your lover, and a very nice thing at that.And a little something, why point out the bug was fake but still let them touch used condoms?!

BTW, in an episode of Family Guy - when Brian looks into his girlfriend's car window and sees her having sex with Cleveland, Cleveland says "Close the window; you're letting the stank out". Later in the episode Quagmire says the exact same.

careful, don't let that thing touch you, and definitely don't get any on you. and women wonder why they get dumped at middle age because they won't do it anymore or their man turns to porn or a girlfriend for a substitute.

People can have particular activities that the "ick factor" inhibits if they're not already aroused, and sub-par hygiene could also be an issue. But many people get aroused 'thinking' about sex. So how icky can they find it, if the fantasy PRECEDES the arousal?

If people had sex before the advent of modern deodorant and regular baths without being grossed out, It does not take a scientific study to prove in todays world why we are doing it like horny rats every chance we get lol!

@CharmanePuck I'm glad to read that someone else had already become aware of this well in advance of reading the article. I've been thinking about ideas closely related to those discussed here for several years. I've come to the conclusion that most of us have a vast split in our perception of our own (and others') sexual behavior.

Seen from the perspective of a naive child, sex is more than anything else just a very strange, even nonsensical idea. I think most children have that or a similar reaction at some point when first learning about the mechanics of sexual intercourse. The whole concept sounds crazy. In later years we do our best to get used to this strange idea, and also we find in ourselves unexpected longings for pleasure of a kind we know involves some kind of sexual, coupling behavior.

It seems to me that the impression that sex is crazy and dangerous does not go away. These disparate ideas and feelings have to coexist in our minds. One of my reactions to realizing all this is a sense of indignation that my mind has not been entirely my own. Desire acts like a drug administered to change a person's mood and even their thoughts. To put the matter in an extreme way, it is as though we are all being continually molested and traumatized by our own desires.

One more point. I have the idea that these contradictory perceptions, while troubling to both sexes, cause more practical problems for females, especially females in the late teenage years, than for males of the same age. If that turns out to be true, I suggest it is a more serious problem for young women simply because the idea of allowing one's body to be penetrated by some other person seems more dangerous and crazier than the idea of penetrating someone else. Seen from the child's world, without the influence of sexual desire, the female role in sex sounds seriously scary and dangerous.

@CarmenSepulveda How is this sensational? Sure sex is heavily invested in sensation but this article is hardly sensational. Its actually pretty basic stuff. Just getting into the details of sexual function which may help with understanding dysfunction. Useful but hardly surprising considering that sex is pretty common.

So it depends on whether one perceives the actual act as much grosser than the fantasy. That probably varies a bit. On the other hand, fantasizing about eating a fat live stink bug might be about as repulsive as the act itself to most. :-)